


Whispers in My Ear

by PinkAngel



Category: The Orville (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-30
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 07:41:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12859938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinkAngel/pseuds/PinkAngel
Summary: Alara finds herself trapped and alone.





	1. At Rock Bottom

**Author's Note:**

> This is my very first Orville fic, so I apologize if some of the characters aren't in character. Just a little thing I wrote during NaNo. Special thanks to the wonderful MeredithBrody!

Her left shoulder was killing her. Literally. Whatever it was that she’d fallen on was imbedded deep in her shoulder, and the puddle of blood was growing larger and larger. She could feel it under her fingertips now. Her head went back and forth between aching and throbbing. And her legs….

She didn’t want to think about the fact that she couldn’t feel them at all.

Claire would be able fix her up in no time if she were here. But she wasn’t, and Alara didn’t think she wanted the doctor to be here. Not with the smell and the tight spaces and the big green eyes lurking in the darkness. The creature was waiting for something. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know for what.

She knew what Claire would say if she were here though. She’d say something like, ‘If it wasn’t for that Xelayan biology of yours’ or ‘Anyone else would already be dead’. It was true too. She was glad it was her who had gotten dragged down here and not Claire or Kelly. If it had been one of them, she would have probably lost a friend.

As it was, it was just her life she was probably going to lose.

No big deal.

Just her life.

She could handle this. Yeah, she could definitely handle this. No reason to panic. It was better than the alternative, right?

The big green eyes watching her seemed to draw closer. She couldn’t get up to investigate. Her weapon was useless. She’d already tried shooting the…thing, but the creature hadn’t seemed fazed. After dragging her down here she had expected to be eaten or mauled to death or something, but after falling down the hole the creature had just left her laying where she’d landed. It almost felt like a trap and she was the bait.

The green set of eyes blinked at her before a deep rumbling sound echoed through the small cavernous space. It was followed by a screech that, if she’d had the energy, she would have shielded her ears against. Everything fell back into silence as soon as the echo faded, and she once again felt alone. Trapped, dying, and alone.

Minutes ticked by. The pain in her shoulder moved to her chest. Or maybe the pain in her chest had just grown to the point that the pain in her shoulder couldn’t overshadow it anymore. Breathing was becoming a problem, she realized, as a cold damp feeling began to seep into her bones. Why was it so cold anyway?

She opened her eyes and stared up at the barely visible opening overhead. It was so far up that it might as well not even be there. She could see little specks of glittering lights though. So she was either hallucinating or night had fallen on the planet. Neither were very good possibilities.

She hoped the _Orville_ had returned by now. She hoped Doctor Finn and Commander Grayson were back on board and safe. Maybe if she closed her eyes and let herself sleep, then when she woke up she’d be on the ship too. Maybe it would all just be a really, really bad attempt at a prank by Isaac.

She heard the sound of gravel scraping against rock. The creature was moving again. She turned her head as much as she could and tried to find the eyes that were now missing. They weren’t anywhere within her visual range though. She’d lost track of the creature. It could be anywhere.

“What do you want?” she asked, her voice hoarse and gravely as she shouted into the darkness.

There was no answer.

She tried to keep her eyes open, but the cold chill was making her fingers ache and her muscles felt like jelly. Exhaustion quickly won out and her eyelids fluttered closed. Her mind drifted, memories of completely unimportant things filled her head. Regret and questions floated around her.

“ _Hang in there, Alara_.”

Her eyes flew open and her breath hitched in her chest. Her eyes scanned the area, but there was no one there. Just the darkness and the faint twinkling stars overhead. Kelly wasn’t down here. Tears started to sting the corner of her eyes and she shut her eyes again.

“ _Alara_ ….” This time it was Claire’s voice whispering through the void.

“Head is screwed up,” she muttered, her words sluggish and slurred. “Going to hallucinate myself to death.”

The communication unit was broken. She’d tried it multiple times already. Either the unit was physically broken or the connection was no good down here. She was _alone_.

Except for the creature stalking her from the shadows, of course.

“ _This is not the purpose of the mission_ ,” Isaac’s steady voice informed her.

She opened her eyes again, or at least tried to. She could barely keep them open. She was still alone….

No, wait. The big green eyes were back. Closer than before. The creature was leaning over her. She could feel its hot breath ghosting over her. It smelled like Gordon’s severed leg if it’d been left out in the sun for a couple days. She nearly vomited at the odor.

“If you’re going to kill me or eat me or something,” she began, staring up at the grotesque creature. She couldn’t make out its features in the dark, but the looming bulk of the creature was intimidating. And she wasn’t easily intimidated. “Just do it. I’m tired.”

The eyes blinked slowly. The head titled to the side with a look that almost seemed…calculating. It began to inch closer to her and she squeezed her eyes closed instinctively. The warmth spread over her more and the increased odor made the nausea worse. If she had the energy for it, she probably really would have thrown up.

The warmth was gone as quickly as it had come. She forced herself to open her eyes again, and found herself once again staring up at nothing. Just the inky dark void with a few tiny dots of light far away. Her vision suddenly blurred though, her mind swimming out of focus as well.

“ _You were not given permission to die_.”

Bortus this time.

She swallowed around the tightness in her throat and tried to get her vocal cords to function. The pain gave way to numbness, and she really wanted to embrace the pull of unconsciousness. Her own self-preservation made her hold on though.

She thought she heard the sound of gravel moving across the rock floor again, but it was far away. Distant. It didn’t matter. She was going to die here and her body would rot and someone else would move into her quarters and someone with more experience would take her place. She just hoped they didn’t mess up the organizational system she’d set up for the weapons' storage.

_'You were not given permission to die.'_ Bortus’ words echoed through her groggy head again.

“I think I’m beyond protocol, Bortus.” A cough rattled her chest and set her side aflame.

“Alara?”

Kelly’s voice was questioning this time, and laced with concern. A lot of concern actually. That was weird. She didn’t have the strength to acknowledge the hallucination this time. There was probably some irony in that.

“Why is she talking to Bortus?” the voice asked, but it didn’t seem to be directed at her.

Yeah, definitely weird.

“She has a head wound,” a voice that sounded like Claire said.

This voices weren’t nearly as whisper-y as before. It was a shame she could barely concentrate on them.

“There’s a lot of blood.”

“Her spinal cord….”

“…fix it?”

“…back to the…”

“Why is it just watching us?”

Okay. Too much noise. She groaned in annoyance and tried to turn her head away from the voices, but a pair of hands were suddenly holding her face and keeping her head from moving.

It felt weird. Hallucinations were weird.

“Just hang in there, Alara. We’re getting you back to the ship.”

A faint smile tugged at her lips as she finally drifted into wonderful unconsciousness.


	2. Don't Worry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Both this chapter and the next are a bit short. The part in italics is a memory/flashback.

Kelly glanced up at her ex-husband as he sat a cup of coffee in front of her. “Thanks,” she said, picking up the cup and relishing in the warmth that seeped from the mug and into her fingers. The planet had gotten cold once the sun had gone down, but she wasn’t entirely convinced that the cold she still felt was just from the weather.

Ed settled in his chair at the desk with his own coffee. Ship time had it as midday, otherwise they would probably both be half-way through a bottle of alcohol. “What happened down there?” he asked.

“We hit turbulence,” she began. “But made a safe landing anyway, so we continued with the mission.”

“Last I heard the mission was to explore a bit, not fall down a pit of despair and get paralyzed.”

Kelly’s eye twitched slightly as she tried to hold back her automatic response. “Alara didn’t _fall_ , she was _pulled_ down,” she pointed out. “And Claire says she’ll recover.”

“Okay, okay. Just…keep going. What happened next?”

“We picked up a lifesign, but we couldn’t identify what kind of lifesign other than animal. It wasn’t one in the computer. We were going to investigate, but then we lost the signal. Claire wanted to scan this plant we ran across though, and it was near a hole in the ground. Easily the size of the shuttle, and the bottom wasn’t visible.” She paused as she thought back to that moment. It had all happened so quickly at that point.

_“I’m supposed to ask you about what happened with Jenson,” she said with an amused roll of her eyes as Claire took a sample of the yellow flower from the plant she was studying._

_Alara rolled her eyes as well. “Ugh. You know…” she answered. “The usual. Seriously, what is it with…”_

_A high pitched screech filled the air seconds before a long, tentacle like appendage shot out from the hole and wrapped around Alara’s ankle. The ground beneath them shook at the same time as the creature yanked Alara down. Kelly reached out to grab her, but missed._

_She and Claire reached the edge of the crumbling hole at the same time, and found Alara clinging to the edge of the rocky pit while the tentacle continued to pull. It was only Alara’s Xelayan strength that kept her from getting pulled away further._

_“Alara, grab my hand,” she instructed, lying flat and reaching down as far as she could. Even at full stretch, she couldn’t quite reach the Security Chief. If Alara let go and reached up though…_

_“You can do it,” Claire encouraged next to her._

_She could, and Alara knew it. Kelly could see it in her eyes. Something was stopping her though, and a moment later she figured out what. The ledge was unstable. Even now bits of the edge were breaking off and crumbling._

_Kelly’s eyes snapped to the tentacle. It was unrelenting, and painful judging by Alara’s expression. She followed the appendage, but it disappeared into the dark pit. The rest of the creature wasn’t even visible._

_But the creature kept pulling, and the force was making the ground break apart. If Alara grabbed her hand, it was more likely that they would both be pulled down into the hole. Alara recognized that fact._

_Their eyes met for a second. Long enough for her to know what was about to happen. “Alara!” she yelled. It was too late though. The Security Chief let go and Kelly watched as her friend was swallowed by the darkness._

Kelly took a long drink of the coffee as she finished the story. “So yeah, that’s what happened.” She met Ed’s eyes and saw him nod.

“Then what?”

“We couldn’t reach her via communicator. And _Orville_ was still out of range.”

“We got back as soon as we could. They needed those emergency medical supplies on Yenna 2 though.”

“I know. Anyway,” she continued. “Descending down the hole wasn’t really an option.”

“What? Climbing down a rocky, crumbling rock wall into a mysterious abyss with an unknown super-creature wasn’t alluring?” Ed teased with a half-smile.

She returned the smile, which was probably lacking considering her exhaustion. “Yeah, wasn’t really what I would consider a good time. Claire had seen a cave as we were landing though. So we thought it might lead down into wherever Alara had been taken. We found it and followed the path until it opened up into cavern.”

“Like the Batcave?”

She frowned in confusion. “The what?”

“The…you know…guy dressed in a bat costume….”

She stared back with an arched eyebrow.

“Never mind.” He cleared his throat and gestured for her to go on. “Continue, please.”

“It was only then that we picked up on the lifesign again. It was in the cave. We didn’t really need the sensor readings though.” She trailed off, remembering the sight of a pair of enormous green eyes staring at them. It had been creepy, to say the least.

Ed frowned. “Why not?

“Eyes. Big green eyes. It was really all we could see in the darkness. Some light from the opening above just barely illuminated the area where Alara was laying. She…didn’t look good. There was a lot of blood.”

Ed nodded, and waited silently for her to continue.

“We made it over to her, and Claire got to work. Her spinal cord had been damaged. She had a bad shoulder wound, a head wound, and a couple broken ribs,” she told him, while mentally telling herself that Alara would be _fine_. She was in good hands now.

“What about the creature?”

“It was strange,” she answered and sat the coffee cup on the desk again. “It didn’t make a move towards us. It just watched at first.”

“At first?”

“Are you going to let me tell this story or are you going to keep interrupting me?”

Ed rolled his eyes. “Fine. Continue.”

“Claire did what she could, and she still didn’t want to move Alara around too much, but we didn’t have much of a choice. We couldn’t stay down there with the creature, and when the _Orville_ returned we needed to be up top. So we carried her out, but as we were leaving I heard the creature move.” It had been a distinct noise, she remembered. It had echoed through the small cavern ominously. “I put Alara’s feet down, drew my weapon again, and turned, but….it didn’t attack. It just stared. Then Alara’s weapon was slid over to us. And then…”

She trailed off. The next part was the hardest to explain. She still wasn’t sure it had actually happened. The _Orville_ ’s rescue shuttle had arrived just a minute or two after they had finally made it out of the cave, and Claire had remained focused on Alara the whole time. So she hadn’t really had the chance to discuss anything other than a brief update on Alara’s condition with the doctor yet.

“Then what?” Ed prompted gently.

“I could have sworn I heard your voice.”

“What? How is that possible? Wait, wait…what did I say?”

“You said, ‘It’s safe now. Don’t worry’.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah. It was strange.”

“Could it have been the creature? We know there are species who can imitate speech,” he pointed out.

“Was it telepathic too?” she asked incredulously in return. “How else would it have heard your voice and known how to imitate it?” she pointed out in return. “Voice aside, I think….I think whatever it was in that hole was _sorry_.”

“Interesting…”

“Yeah.”

Ed watched her silently for a few seconds before leaning forward in his chair. “Go get some rest. I’ll check on Alara.”

“Ed, I’m fine.”

“Humor me.”

She rolled her eyes, but smiled faintly. “Fine. I could use a shower.”

“Yeah, you could.”

She arched an eyebrow at him in return. “Seriously? You’re going to agree with that?”

“Well you do kinda smell like rotten eggs.”

“Thanks, Ed.”

He smiled and chuckled lightly, and she couldn’t really be mad at him. She probably did smell. The hole they’d found Alara in had reeked. “Make sure Alara’s okay for me,” she requested as she stood up to leave.

“I will. Don’t worry.”

They both froze for a moment at his word choice. It had sounded exactly like the voice had when it had said the same thing back on the planet. Their eyes met, but neither commented. She nodded in response and left the office before anything else weird could happen.


	3. The End?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we have the last chapter. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the story!

  _It was the first time she had ever encountered something stronger than herself. The tentacle was wound tightly around her ankle and lower leg. So tightly that she thought her leg might just break off entirely.  
_

_"Alara, hold on!"_

_"What do you think I'm doing!" she shouted back.  
_

_She scrambled to readjust her grip on the rock ledge as it began to crumble again. Her nails scraped against rock and she was pretty sure at least one was about to break off. She’d tried to use her weapon, but had only lost it in the process._

_Her eyes widened as the uniform under the tentacle ripped and her skin came in contact with rough, leathery hide. She barely had time to think about that though, because as soon as the tentacle touched her skin an electric shock shot up her leg._

_It was followed by a tingling numbness. As if her foot was falling asleep. The tingling moved up her leg, leaving behind nothing but a numb limb. She wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer. She knew it. Glancing up she saw Kelly reaching down for her. She saw Claire's tense expression. At the same time she imagined her two friends falling with her. If she took Kelly’s hand.....  
_

_The creature was too strong, and the rocky ledge was too unstable.  
_

_And the tingling was spreading.  
_

_As the numbness inched up into her wrist she caught Kelly's eyes for a split-second before letting go. She felt herself falling. Saw the widening eyes of her crewmates. Heard them shouting after her._

_The noise faded quickly though as darkness wrapped around her._

Alara blinked tiredly as the dream faded. Or memory? She shifted, and only then realized where she was. It was the med-bay, not the cavern, and she felt a little stiff. So yeah, apparently that actually had happened.

And apparently she had lived? That was kinda unexpected.

“Oh, Alara. You’re awake. Good.” Doctor Finn was suddenly standing next to the medical bed as she pushed herself up onto her elbows. The older woman smiled and helped steady her with a hand. “How are you feeling, Alara?”

“Better than the last time I remember feeling something,” she answered, rubbing the back of her neck.

“So you remember what happened?”

“Uh, yeah. Mostly I think. I’m a little vague on a few things.”

“That’s not surprising. You had a pretty big bump on your head, Lieutenant,” Clair informed her.

“How did we get back to the ship?” she asked. The last thing she remembered was…a voice? Yeah, an out of place voice. And it had been cold and then not cold.

“Dr. Finn and Commander Grayson got you out of a hole,” came the Captain’s voice.

Alara sat up straighter and swung her legs over the side of the bed. A look from Claire kept her from going any further though. “Captain,” she greeted.

“Alara.” He smiled lightly. “Feeling better?”

“Yes, sir.”

“We picked up your shuttle’s distress signal and returned as soon as we could. Ran into a Krill scout on the way back from dropping off those supplies though, otherwise we would’ve been back sooner. Claire and Kelly got you out though,” he told her.

Her eyes widened as she realized Kelly wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “What about the creature? Was anyone hurt?”

“No,” Claire answered, sensing her concern. “It didn’t attack us.”

“Why not? Not that I’d want it to, just…”

Claire smiled amusedly. “We don’t really know.”

“It returned your weapon though,” the Captain told her.

“That was…nice of it?” she commented uncertainly.

“It may have grabbed you thinking you were something else, or even a threat,” Dr. Finn stated. “And once it realized you weren’t….”

“It didn’t want me anymore,” Alara supplied.

“It’s a possibility.” The captain looked thoughtful for a moment before turning to Claire. “Did you by chance hear anything unusual in the cave?”

Alara’s eyes flickered quickly between the two.

‘ _You were not given permission to die_ ,’ she remembered Bortus saying. Or at least she’d _heard_ Bortus. Or _thought_ she had.

“No, I can’t say that I did.” Claire frowned, a mix of confusion and concern. “I was focused on Alara though.”

“Kelly said she heard something.”

“The creature?”

The captain shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.” He looked over at her, and apparently noticed her expression. “Alara?”

Could she have actually heard the people she’d thought she had? If Kelly had heard something than maybe she hadn’t just imagined it all. Some of it was still a little fuzzy, but she definitely remembered hearing people who couldn’t possibly have been there.

“I think I may have heard things, Captain. I couldn’t move, and I thought I just imagined it, but if Commander Grayson heard something too….”

“Your spine was damaged,” Claire explained. “And you had some nerve damage as well.”

That explained the not being able to move thing.

“What did you hear?” the captain asked.

“Bortus, Doctor Finn…” she answered. It was hard to remember exactly what was said, but she remembered hearing them. “Isaac I think, and Commander Grayson.”

“Huh,” the captain replied simply. “That’s…a little strange.”

Alara scoffed. “Definitely strange.”

“Well, get some rest for now, Lieutenant. You too, Doctor,” the Captain added before turning to leave.

Alara waited until the Captain was gone before looking back at Doctor Finn, who seemed content with running a scanner around her. “So when can I leave?” she asked.

Claire shot her a look that said it all.

“So,” she began slowly. “Not now?”

“In the morning. Assuming you don’t lose sensation in your legs,” Claire answered with her no-nonsense tone. She lowered the scanner and walked around to the other side of the bed. “You heard the Captain, Lieutenant. Rest.”

She reluctantly laid back down, but turned her head to watch the doctor. “Didn’t he tell you to rest too?”

“I’m the Chief Medical Officer. I’ll decide when a crewmember needs to rest,” she replied nonchalantly without even looking away from her work.

Alara smirked amusedly. She was really just glad Claire and Kelly hadn’t been hurt, and thankful that they’d found her. She still felt stiff and a little achy, but it could have been worse. At least she could feel and move her legs now.

“Hey, Claire?”

“Mhm,” the doctor replied distractedly.

“Thanks. You know….for saving me.”

Claire looked up and smiled. “You would have done the same for us, Alara. Now rest. I better not see you get off that bed. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.” She chuckled at the doctor’s serious expression, but when Claire left to speak with Nurse Park she turned her head and stared up at the ceiling. Thoughts buzzed around her head as she tried to figure out what had happened with the creature and the voices she’d heard. It had been easier to believe that she’d just been hallucinating, but if she hadn’t been hallucinating….

Maybe the creature had been more intelligent than they’d originally thought. What if it really hadn’t wanted to hurt her? If it had all just been an accident or misunderstanding?

Her thoughts were interrupted when Nurse Park draped a blanket over her and gave her a kind smile before leaving to do some work. She sighed tiredly and shook the thoughts of the mission away. It could wait, she figured. Maybe one day they’d return to the planet and figure everything out. Until then…

Yeah, she could use some sleep.


End file.
